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AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



IE¥ YOEK HISTORICAL SOCIETY 



FEBRUARY 23, 1852, 



DANIEL WEBSTER 



PULCHRUM EST BENBFACERE REIPUBLICE ; ETIAM BENEDICERE HAUD ABSURDUSVI EST. 



NEW YORK: 

PRESS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

MDCCCLII. 



AN ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



mW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



FEBRUARY^ 23, 1852, 



DANIEL WEBSTER. 



rULCHRCM EST EENF.FACERE REIPUELIC^E ; ETtAM BENEUICERE HAUD AESURDUM EST. 



NEW YORK: 

PRESS OF THE HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 
MDCCCLII. 



ENTERED 

According to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, by tbs 

NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 

For the Southern District of New York. 






I DEDICATE 



THIS ADDRESS 



THE HON. LUTHER BRADISH, 



PRESIDENT 



OF THE NEW YORK HISTORICAL SOCIETY, 



AS A PROOF OF PRIVATE FRIENDSHIP, AND PUBLIC REGARD. 



DANIEL WEBSTER 



Nevt York, Febeuart 24, 1852. 



E R K A T \. 

The sentence at the close of the second paragraph on page 13 was written 
as a foot-note. The sentence is : " hi this panegyric of the state of things in 
Athens, there is a constant, though tacit, contrast with the Spartan institu- 
tions and character." 

On page 14, line 5 from top, "indeed" should be "in deed." 
On page 23, line 6 from bottom, for " did not survive the war," read " did 
not loyiff survive the war," 



ADDRESS. 



The object of your Association, Gentlemen, like 
that of others of similar character, is highly important. 
Historical Societies are auxiliary to Historical compo- 
sitions. They collect tlie materials from which the 
great narrative of events is, in due time, to be framed. 
The transactions of public bodies, local histories, me- 
moirs of all kinds, statistics, laws, ordinances, public 
debates and discussions, works of periodical literature, 
and the public journals, whether of political events, of 
commerce, literature, or the arts, all find their places 
in the collections of Historical Societies. But these 
collections are not history ; they are only elements of 
history. History is a higher name, and imports lite- 
rary productions of the first order. 

It is presumptuous in me, whose labors and studies 
have been so long devoted to other objects, to speak 
in the presence of those whom I see before me, of the 
dignity and imjwrtance of History, in its just sense ; 
and yet I find pleasure in breaking in upon the course 
of daily pursuits, and indulging, for a time, in reflec- 
tions upon topics of literature, and in the remembrance 
of the great examples of historic art. 

Well written history must always be the result of 
genius and taste, as well as of research and study. 



It stands next to Epic poetry, among the productions 
of the human mind. If it requires less of invention 
than that, it is not behind it in dignity and importance. 
The province of the Epic is the poetical narrative of 
real or supposed events, and the representation of 
real, or at least natural, characters ; and History, in 
its noblest examples, is an account of occurrences, in 
which great events are commemorated, and dis- 
tinguished men appear as agents and actors. Epic 
poetry and the Drama are but narratives, the former 
partly, and the latter wholly, in the form of dialogue ; 
but their characters and personages are usually, in 
part at least, the creations of the imagination. 

Severe history sometimes assumes the dialogue, or 
dramatic form, and, without departing from truth, is 
embellished by supposed colloquies or speeches, as in 
the productions of that great master, Titus Livius, or 
that greater master still, Thucydides. 

The drawing of characters, consistent with gene- 
ral truth and fidelity, is no violation of historical accu- 
racy ; it is only an illustration or an ornament. 

When Livy ascribes an appropriate speech to one 
of his historical personages, it is only as if he had por- 
trayed the same character in language professedly his 
own. Lord Clarendon's presentation, in his own words, 
of the character of Lord Falkland, one of the highest 
and most successful efforts of personal description, is 
hardly different from what it would have been, if he 
had put into the mouth of Lord Falkland, a speech ex- 
hibiting the same qualities of the mind and the heart, 
the same opinions, and the same attachments. Homer 
describes the actions of personages, which, if not real, 
are so imagined as to be conformable to the general 



characteristics of men in the heroic ages. If his rela- 
tion be not historically true, it is such, nevertheless, as, 
making due allowance for poetical embellishment, 
might have been true. And in Milton's great Epic, 
which is almost entirely made up of narratives and 
speeches, there is nothing repugnant to the general 
conception which we form of the characters of those, 
whose sentiments and conduct he portrays. 

But History, wiiile it illustrates and adorns, confines 
itself to facts, and to the relation of actual events. 
It is not far from truth to say, that well written and 
classic History is the Epic of real life. It places the 
actions of men in an attractive and interesting light. 
Rejecting wiiat is improper and superfluous, it fills its 
picture with real, just, and well drawn images. 

The dignity of History consists in reciting events with 
truth and accuracy, and in presenting human agents 
and their actions, in an interesting and instructive form. 
The first element in History, therefore, is truthfulness ; 
and this truthfulness must be displayed in a concrete 
form. Classical History is not a memoir. It is not a 
crude collection of acts, occurrences, and dates. It 
adopts nothing that is not true ; but it does not em- 
brace all minor truths and all minor transactions. It is 
a composition, a production, which has unity of design, 
like a work of statuary or of painting, and keeps con- 
stantly in view one great end or result. Its parts, there- 
fore, are to be properly adjusted and well proportioned. 
The historian is an artist, as true to fact as other artists 
are to nature, and, though he may sometimes embellish, 
he never misrepresents ; he may occasionally, perhaps, 
color too highly, but the truth is still visible through 
the lights and shades. This unity of design seems es- 



sential to all great j^roductions. With all the variety 
of the Iliad, Homer had the wrath of Achilles, and its 
consequences, always before him; when he sang of the 
exploits of other heroes, they weye, silently subordina- 
ted to those of the son of Thetis. Still more remarkable 
is the unity in variety of the Odyssey, the character of 
which is much more complicated ; but all the parts are 
artfully adapted to each other, and they have a common 
centre of interest and action, the great end being the 
restoration of Ulysses to his native Ithaca. Virgil, in 
the iEneid, sang of nothing but the man, and his deeds, 
who brought the Trojan gods to Italy, and laid the 
foundation of the walls of imperial Rome ; and Milton 
of nothing, but 

•' " " Man's first disobedience, and the fruit 

Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste 
Brought death into the world and all our woes." 

And the best historical productions of ancient and of 
modern times, have been written with equal fidelity to 
one leading thought or purpose. 

It has been said by Lord Bolingbroke, that " History 
is Philosophy teaching by example ;" and, before Bo- 
lingbroke, Shakspeare has said : 

" There is a history in all men's lives, 
FiiTurinfi; the nature of the times deceased : 
The which observed, a man may prophec}^, 
With a near aim, of the main chance of thing's, 
As yet not come to life ; which in their 
Seeds, and weak beginnings, lie entreasured. 
Such things become the hatch and brood of time ; 
And, by the necessary form of this, 
King Richard might create a perfect guess, 



9 



That great Northumberland then false to him, 
Would, of that seed, grow to a greater falseness ; 
Which should not find a ground to rest upon. 
Unless on you. 

Are these things then necessities ? 
Then let us meet them like necessities." 

iVnd a wiser man than either Bolingbroke or Sliaks- 
peare, has declared : 

" The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is 
done, is that which shall be done ; and there is no ne\y thing under the 
sun." 

These sayings are all just, and they proceed upon the 
idea that the essential characteristics of human nature 
are the same everywhere, and in all ages. 

Tliis, doubtless, is true ; and so far as History presents 
the general qualities and propensities of human nature, 
it does teach by example. Bolingbroke adds, with re- 
markable power of expression, that " the school of ex- 
ample is the world: and the masters of this school are 
history and experience." 

But the character of man varies so much, from age 
to age, both in his individual and collective capacity ; 
there comes such a change of circumstances, so many 
new objects of desire and aversion, and so many new 
and powerful motives spring up in his mind, that the 
conduct of men, in one age, or under one state of cir- 
cumstances, is no sure and precise indication of what 
will be their conduct, when times and circumstances 
alter ; so that the example of the past, before it can 
become a useful instructor to the present, must be re- 
duced to elementary principles in human nature, freed 
from the influence of conditions which were temporary 



10 



and have changed, and appHed to the same principles, 
under new relations, with a different degree of know- 
ledge, and the impulses arising from the altered state 
of things. A savage has the passions of ambition, re- 
venge, love and glory ; and ambition and love, revenge 
and the hope of renown, are also elements in the 
character of civilized life ; but the development of 
these passions, in a state of barbarism, hardly instructs 
us as to the manner in which they will exhibit them- 
selves in a cultivated period of society. 

And so it is of religious sentiment and feeling. I 
believe man is everywhere, more or less, a religious 
being ; that is to say, in all countries, and at all times, 
he feels a tie which connects him with an Invisible 
Power. 

It is true, indeed, and it is a remarkable fact in the 
history of mankind, that in the very lowest stage of 
human existence, and in the opposite extreme of high 
civilization, surrounded with everything luxurious in 
life, and with all the means of human knowledge, the 
idea of an unseen and supreme Governor of the Uni- 
verse is most likely to be equally doubted or disre- 
garded. 

The lowest stage of human culture, that of mere 
savage existence, and the intellectual and refined 
atheism, exhibited in our own day, seem to be strangely 
coincident in this respect ; though it is from opposite 
causes and influences that men, in these so different 
conditions, are led to doubt or deny the existence of a 
Supreme Power. But both these are exceptions to the 
general current of human thought, and to the general 
conviction of our nature. 

Man is naturally religious ; but then his religion 



11 



takes its character from his condition, his degree of 
knowledge, and his associations ; and thns, it is true 
that the rehgious feeling, which operates in one state 
of society, and under one degree of light and know- 
ledge, is not a safe example, to prove its probable 
influence under circumstances essentially different. 
So that, when we regard history as our instructor, in 
the development of the perceptions and character of 
men, and in the motives which actuate them, there 
comes a concomitant rush of altered circumstances, 
wiiich are all to be considered and regarded. 

History, therefore, is an example which may teach 
us the general principles of human nature, but does 
not instruct us greatly in its various possible develop- 
ments. 

What Dr. Johnson said, in his comparison of Dryden 
and Pope, is not inapplicable to this topic, " Dryden," 
said he, " knew more of man in his general nature, and 
Pope in his local manners." Dryden's sentiments, 
therefore, are the exemplar of human nature in general, 
Pope's of human nature as modified in particular rela- 
tions and circumstances ; and what is true of individ- 
ual man, in this respect, is true, also, of society and 
government. 

The love of liberty, for instance, is a passion or sen- 
timent, which existed in intense force in the Grecian 
Republics, and in the better ages of Rome. It ex- 
ists now, chiefly, and first of all, on that portion of the 
Western Continent in which we [live. Here, it burns 
with heat and with splendor beyond all Grecian and 
all Roman example. It is not a light in the temple of 
Minerva, it is not the vestal flame of Rome ; it is the 
light of the sun, it is the illumination of all the con- 



12 



stellations. Earth, air, and ocean, and all the heavens 
above us, are filled with its glorious shining; and, 
although the passion and the sentiment are the same, 
yet, he who would reason from Grecian liberty, or from 
Roman freedom, to our intelligent American liberty, 
would be holding a farthing candle to the orb of day. 

The magnificent funeral oration of Pericles, over 
those who fell in the Peloponnesian war, is one of the 
grandest productions of antiquity. It contains sen- 
timents and excites emotions, congenial to the minds 
of all lovers of liberty, in all regions and at all times. 
It exhibits a strong and ardent attachment to country, 
which true patriots always feel ; an undaunted cour- 
age in its defence, and willingness to pledge and 
hazard all, for the maintenance of liberty. I cannot 
deny myself the pleasure of quoting a few passages 
from that celebrated address, in a translation, which 
I think much closer to the original Greek than that of 
Smith : 

" I shall begin first with our ancestors, to whom it is at once just and 
becoming- on such an occasion as the present, that this honor of our com- 
memoration should be paid ; for the country which was ever their own 
home, they have handed down in the line of their successors to the present 
day, free through their valor. Both they indeed are worthy of our praise 
and still more our own fathers ; for, having in addition to what they in- 
herited, acquired, not without hardship, the dominion which we possess, 
thev have transmitted it to us. 

" The greater portion of it indeed we ourselves, who are yet at the 
meridian of life, have still further augmented, till we have placed the city 
in all things in such a state of preparation that it is all sufficient in itself 
for war and for peace. 

" The warlike deeds by which all this has been efifected, either by our- 
selves or by our fathers, in strenuously resisting the invasions, whether of 
barbarians or of Greeks, I omit, not wishing to enlarge upon them before 
the well informed ; but by what conduct we have come to this condition, 



13 



by what policy and by what manners these great results have been brought 
about, these I will set forth before the eulogy of the deceased, deeming 
these things not inappropriate to be spoken on this occasion ; and that it 
will be beneficial to the whole assembly of strangers and citizens to listen 
to them. 

" For we enjoy a form of Government not emulating the laws of neigh- 
boring States, being ourselves rather a model to others than copying from 
them. It has been called by the name of Democracy, as being the gov- 
vernment not of the few but of the majority. It secures to all, under the 
laws, equality in their private controversies, — in proportion as a citizen is 
in any respect in good repute, he is preferred above others, not more on 
account of the class to which he may belong than his own merit ; while, 
on the other hand as to poverty, no one qualified to serve the State is 
prevented from doing so by the obscurity of his condition. We perform 
our public duties on these liberal princijiles ; and as to mxitual supervi- 
sionjn reference to the daily course of life, we take no offence at our 
neighbor for following his own inclination, nor do we subject ourselves to 
the annoyance of austerities which are painful, if not injurious. In this 
panegyric of the state of things in Athens, there is a constant, though 
tacit contrast with the Spartan institutions and character. 

" While our private intercourse, therefore, is without offence in our public 
concerns, we mainly fear to act illegally, ever obeying the magistrates for 
the time being and the laws, especially such of them as are passed for the 
protection of the oppressed, and such, though unwritten, as cannot be broken 
without acknowledged shame. 

^ ***** 

"Having displayed our power in noble manifestations, and most assuredly 
not w'ithout witnesses, we shall be the admiration of the jiresent age and 
of posterity, not needing in addition the eulogy of Homer, or of any other 
poet, whose descriptions will charm the ear at the time, but whose concep- 
tion of deeds is at variance with the truth ; but having forced every sea and 
every land to be accessible to our enterprise, and having everywhere 
planted, together with our settlements, eternal monuments of injuries 
and of benefits. Combatting, therefore, generously for such a city, and 
thinking it unjust that it should be wrested from them, these men laid doAvn 
their lives ; and, of those who survive, it behooves every one to be willing to 
labor and suffer for it. 

* * * * . * * 

" Such, then, as it became the city, were the departed. As for those who 



14 



remain, you may desire indeed a safer career, but you must not deign to 
cherish a spirit in any degree less resolute toward the enemy ; — having 
regard not merely to the words of persons not wiser than yourselves, who 
may harangue you upon the honor of gallant resistance to the foe, but 
rather daily contemi)lating indeed the jiower of the State, till you become 
enamored of it ; and when you have come to perceive its greatness, re- 
flecting that brave men knowing their duty, and in their deeds shrinking 
from dishonor, have achieved it ; — men who even, though they might fail 
in an enterprise, still felt that they ought not to deprive the country of the 
benefit of their valor, but lavished upon it the most precious offering. Thus 
giving their lives to the public, they received individually the praise that 
grows not old, and a most distinguished sepulchre, not so much that iu 
which their bodies lie, as that in which their glory, — on every occasion of 
word or deed, — shall be left in everlasting remembrance. 

" For of illustrious men the whole Earth is the sepulchre, and not the 
inscription alone of columns in their native land indicates it, but in 
countries also not their own, the unwritten memory which abides with every 
man of the spirit more than the deed. 

" Emulous of men like these, do you also, placing your happiness in 
Hberty, and your liberty in courage, shun no warlike dangers in defence of 
your country." 

How ter.se, how Doric, how well considered is the 
style of this unsurpassed oration ! Gentlemen, does 
not every page, paragraph, and sentence of what I 
have read, go home to all our hearts, carrying a 
most gratified consciousness of its resemblance to 
what is near and dear to us in our own native land ? 
Is it Athens, or America ? Is Athens or America 
the theme of these immortal strains ? Was Pericles 
speaking of his own country, as he saw it or knew it ; 
or, was he gazing upon a bright vision, then two thou- 
sand years before him, which we see in reality, as he 
saw it in prospect? 

But the contests of Sparta and Athens, what were 
they in lasting importance, and in their bearing on the 
destinies of the world, in comparison with that ever 



15 

memorable struggle which separated the American 
Colonies from the dominion of Europe ? How differ- 
ent the result, which betided Athens, from that which 
crowned the glorious efforts of our ancestors ; and, 
therefore, this renowned oration of Pericles, what is it 
in comparison with an effort of historical eloquence, 
which should justly set forth the merits of the heroes 
and the martyrs of the American revolution ? 

The Liberty of Athens, and of the other Gre- 
cian Republics, being founded in pure democracy, 
without any principle of representation, was fitted 
only for small States. The exercise of popular 
power in a purely democratic form, cannot be spread 
orer countries of large extent ; because, in such 
countries all cannot assemble in the same place, to 
vote directly upon laws and ordinances, and other pub- 
lic questions. But the principle of representation is 
expansive ; it may be enlarged, if not infinitely, yet 
indefinitely, to meet new occasions, and embrace 
new regions. While, therefore, the love of liberty 
was the same, and its general principle the same, in the 
Grecian Republics as with us, yet not only were the 
forms essentially different, but that also was wanting, 
which we have been taught to consider as indispensa- 
ble to its security : that is, a fixed, settled, definite, 
fundamental law, or CDnstitution, imposing limitations, 
and restraints, equally on governors, and governed. 
We may, therefore, inhale all the fullness and freshness 
of the Grecian spirit, but we necessarily give its de- 
velopment a different form, and subject it to new mod- 
ifications. 

But history is not only philosophy, teaching by exam- 
ple ; its true purpose is, also, to illustrate the general 



16 



progress of society in knowledge and the arts, and the 
changes of manners and pursuits of men. 

There is an imperfection, both in ancient and mo- 
dern histories, and those of the best masters, in this 
respect. While they recite public transactions, they 
omit, in a great degree, what belongs to the civil, 
social, and domestic progress of men and nations. 
There is not, so far as I know, a good civil history of 
Rome, nor is there an account of the manners and 
habits of social and domestic life, such as may inform 
us of the progress of her citizens, from the foundation 
of the city to the time of Livy and Sallust, in indi- 
vidual exhibitions of character. 

We know, indeed, something of the private 
pursuits and private vices of the Roman people at 
the commencement of the Empire, but we obtain our 
knowledge of these chielly from the severe and indig- 
nant rebukes of Sallust, and the inimitable satires of 
Juvenal. Wars, foreign and domestic, the achieve- 
ments of arms, and national alliances fill up tlie re- 
corded greatness of the Roman Empire. 

It is very remarkable that, in this respect, Roman 
Literature is far more deficient than that of Greece. 
Aristophanes, and other Grecian comic writers, have 
scenes richly filled with the deUneation of the lives and 
manners of their own people. But the Roman imitators 
of the Grecian stage gave themselves up to the repro- 
duction of foreign characters on their own stage, and 
presented in their dramas Grecian manners also, in- 
stead of Roman manners. How much wiser was Shak- 
speare, who enchained the attention of his audiences, 
and still enchains the attention of the wiiole Teutonic 
race, by the presentation of English manners and Eng- 
lish History ? 



17 



Falstaff, Justice Shallow, and Dogberry, are not 
shrubs of foreign growth transplanted into the pages of 
Shakspeare, but genuine productions of the soil, the 
creations of his own home-bred fancy. 

Mr. Banks has written a Civil History of Rome, but 
it seems not to have answered the great end which it 
proposed. 

The labors of Niebuhr, Arnold, and Merivale have 
accomplished much towards furnishing the materials of 
such history, and Becker, in his Gallus, has drawn a 
picture not uninteresting of the private life of the Ro- 
mans at the commencement of the Empire. 

I know nothing of the fact, but I once had an intima- 
tion, that one of the most distinguished writers of our 
time and of our country, has had his thoughts turned 
to this subject for several years. If this be so, and the 
work, said to be in contemplation, be perfected, it will 
be true, as I have no doubt, that the Civil History of 
the great Republic of antiquity will have been written, 
not only with thorough research, but also with ele- 
gance of style, and chaste, classical illustration, by a 
citizen of the great Republic of modern times. I trust, 
that when this work shall appear, if it shall appear, we 
shall not only see the Roman Consul and the Roman 
General, the Comitia and the Forum, but that we shall 
also see Roman hearths and altars, the Roman matron 
at tlie head of her household, Roman children in their 
schools of instruction, and the whole of Roman life fully 
presented to our view, so far as the materials, now ex- 
isting in separate and special works, afford the means. 

It is in our day only, that the history and progress of 
the civil and social institutions and manners of England 
have become the subjects of particular attention. 



IS , . -; 

Sharon Turner, Lingard, and, more than all, Mr. 
Hallam, have laid this age, and all following ages, under 
the heaviest obligations by their labors in this field of 
literary composition ; nor would I separate from them 
the writings of a most learned and eloquent person, 
whose work on English History is now in progress, 
nor the author of the Pictorial History of England. But 
there is still wanting a full, thorough, and domestic, 
social account of our English ancestors, that is, a his- 
tory which shall trace the progress of social life in the 
intercourse of man with man ; the advance of arts, the 
various changes in the habits and occupations of indi- 
viduals ; and those improvements in domestic life, 
which have attended the condition and meliorated 
the circumstances of men in the lapse of ages. We 
still have not the means of learning, to any great ex- 
tent, how our English ancestors, at their homes, and 
in their houses, were fed, and lodged, and clothed, and 
what were their daily employments. We want a his- 
tory of firesides ; we want to know when kings and 
queens exchanged beds of straw for beds ofdown, 
and ceased to breakfast on beef and beer. We wish 
to see more, and to know more, of the changes which 
took place, from age to age, in the homes of England, 
from the castle and the palace, down to the humblest 
cottage. Mr. Henry's book, so far as it goes, is not 
without its utility, but it stops too soon, and, even in 
regard to the period which it embraces, it is not suffi- 
ciently full and satisfactory in its particulars. 

The feudal ages were military and agricultural, but 
the splendor of arms, in the history of the times, mo- 
nopolised the genius of writers ; and perhaps materials 
are not now abundant for forming a knowledge of the 



19 



essential industry of the country. He would be a 
public benefactor, who should instruct us in the modes 
of cultivation and tillage prevailing in England, from 
the conquest down, and in the advancement of manu- 
factures, from their inception in the time of Henry IV., 
to the period of their considerable development, two 
centuries afterwards. 

There are two sources of information on these sub- 
jects, which have never yet been fully explored, and 
which, nevertheless, are overflowing fountains of know- 
ledge. I mean the statutes, and the proceedings of the 
courts of law. At an early period of life, I recurred, 
with some degree of attention, to both these sources 
of information ; not so much for professional purposes, 
as for the elucidation of the progress of Society. I 
acquainted myself with the object, and purposes, and 
substance of every published statute in British legis- 
lation. These showed me what the legislature of the 
country was concerned in, from age to age, and from 
year to year. And I learned from the reports of con- 
troversies, in the courts of law, what were the pur- 
suits and occupations of individuals, and what the 
objects which most earnestly engaged attention. I 
hardly know anything which more repays research, 
than studies of this kind. We learn from them what 
pursuits occupied men during the feudal ages. We 
see the efforts of society to throw off the chains of this 
feudal dominion. We see too, in a most interesting 
manner, the ingenious devices resorted to, to break 
the thraldom of personal slavery. We see the begin- 
ning of manufacturing interests, and at length bursts 
upon us the full splendor of the commercial age. 

Littleton, Coke, Plowden, what are they ? How their 



m 



learning fades away and becomes oljsolete, when Holt, 
and Somers, and Mansfield arise, catching themselves^ 
and infusing all around them, the influences and the 
knowledge, which commerce had shed upon the world ! 

Our great teachers and examples in the historical 
art are, doubtless, the eminent historians of the Greek 
and Roman ages. In their several ways, they are the 
masters to whom all succeeding times have looked for in- 
struction and improvement. They are tlie models which 
have stood the test of time, and, like the glorious crea- 
tions in marble, of Grecian genius, have been always 
admired and never surpassed. 

We have our favorites in literature, as w^ell as in other 
things, and, I confess, that, among the Grecian writers, 
my estimate of Herodotus is great. His evident truth- 
fulness, his singular simplicity of style, and his constant 
respect and veneration for sacred and divine things, 
win my regard. It is true that he sometimes appears 
credulous, which caused Aristotle to say of him, that he 
was a story-teller. But, in respect to this, two things 
are to be remarked ; the one is, that he never avers 
as a fact, that which rests on the accounts of others ; 
the other, that all subsequent travels and discoveries 
have tended to confirm his fidelity. From his great 
qualities as a writer, as well as from the age in which 
he lived, he is justly denominated the " Father of His- 
tory." Herodotus was a conscientious narrator of what 
he saw and heard. In his manner there is much of the 
old epic style ; indeed, his work may be considered as 
the connecting link between the epic legend and po- 
litical history ; truthful, on the one hand, since it was 
a genuine history : but, on the other, conceived and ex- 
ecuted in the spirit of poetry, and not the profounder 



21 



spirit of political philosophy. It breaths a reverential 
submission to the divine will, and recognizes distinctly 
the governing hand of Providence in the affairs of men. 
But, upon the whole, I am compelled to regard Tlmcy- 
dides as the greater writer. Thucydides was equally 
truthful, but more conversant with the motives and 
character of men in their political relations. He took 
infinite pains to make himself thoroughly acquainted 
with the transactions that occurred in his own day, and 
which became the subject of his own narrative.* 

It is said, even, that persons were employed by him 
to obtain information from both the belligerent powers, 
for his use, while writing the history of tliePeloponne- 
sian war. 

He was one of the most eminent citizens of the Athen- 
ian republic, educated under the Institutions of Solon, 
and trained in all the political wisdom, which these insti- 
tutions had developed in the two centuries since their 
establishment. A more profound intellect never appli- 
ed itself to historical investigation; a more clear-sight- 
ed and impartial judge of human conduct never dealt 
with the fortunes and acts of political communities. 

The work of Herodotus is graphic, fluent, dramatic, 
and ethical in the highest degree ; but it is not the work 
of the citizen of a free republic, personally experi- 
enced in the conduct of its afiliirs. The History of the 
Peloponnesian war, on the other hand, could only have 
been produced by a man of large experience, and who 
added to vast genius deep personal insight into the 
workings of various public institutions. As Thucydi- 
des himself says, his history was written not for the en- 

* See Book V., § 20. 



m 



tertainment of the moment, but to be " a possession 
forever." 

There can, it seems to me, be no reasonable doubt, 
that the first works, by which man expressed his 
thoughts and feehngs in an orderly composition, were 
essentially poetical. In the earliest writings, of which 
we know anything with distinctness, we have an union, 
or mingling of poetry and fact, embodying the tradi- 
tions and history of the people among which they 
arose. 

Like other intellectual culture, this form of History 
appeared first in the East, and, from the days of Moses 
and Joshua down to our own times, it has there re- 
tained substantially the same character. I mean, it 
has been a remarkable mixture of the spirit of History 
and of epic poetry. In Greece, we may observe ori- 
ginally the same state of things ; but the two forms of 
composition at length became separated, though the 
Greek historical art, when highest, never loses all its 
relations to the epic. The earliest Greek poets were 
religious and historical poets, dealing in the traditions 
and mythology of their country, and so continued down 
through Homer. Herodotus was by birth an Asiatic 
Greek, and was quite imbued with the oriental spirit. 
In his time, of public records there were none, or, at the 
most, there were only local registers of pubHc events, 
and their dates, such, for instance, as those kept by the 
priesthood in the temples at Delphi and Argos, or the 
registers of particular families. He travelled, there- 
fore, to collect the materials for his history. But he 
made of them one whole, and laid one idea at the bot- 
tom, with as much epic simplicity as Homer did in the 
Iliad. His subject was the contest of Greece with the 



23 



Persians, and the triumph of Grecian liberty, or, more 
strictly, the great Grecian victory over the barbarians, 
who had conquered the world, as then known. The 
relations between Herodotus and Homer are not to be 
mistaken ; he not only has episodes, like the long 
one about Egypt, and formal speeches, which were 
common in historical works till the sixteenth century 
of our era, and have not been unknown since,* but he 
has dialogues. One of his series of speeches, which 
partakes of the character of a dialogue, shows a re- 
markable advancement in political knowledge for 
that age; I mean that in which the conspirators 
against the Magi of Persia, previously to the elevation 
of Darius, discuss the different forms of government, 
almost in the spirit of Montesquieu. But all these things 
are kept in their proper places by Herodotus. He 
feels the connection of his subject all the way through; 
how one event proceeds from another, and how, in 
the spirit of Epic unity, everything tends to the princi- 
pal result, or contributes to it directly. 

In Thucydides, the art of History is further advanced, 
though he lived very little later than Herodotus. He 
probably had read or heard his history, though that is 
doubted. 

Thucydides did not, indeed, make one whole of his 
work, for he did not survive the war, whose history 
he undertook to relate ; but he is less credulous than 
Herodotus ; he has no proper dialogue ; he is more 
compact; he indulges very little in episodes; he draws 
characters, and his speeches are more like formal, 
stately discussions. And he says of them, they are 

* They are adopted, for instance, by Botta. 



such as he eitlier heard himself, or received from those 
who did hear them, and he states that he gives them 
in their true substance. 

There is nothing to create a doubt, that personally 
he heard the oration of Pericles ; and it is remarkable 
that, throughout the most flourishing period of Greek lit- 
erature, both poetical and historical, productions were 
composed to be heard, rather than to be read; and the 
practice of listening to their rehearsals led the Greek 
people to attain great accuracy, as well as ret^ntiveness, 
of memory. 

In short, Herodotus' work seems a natural, fresh 
production of the soil; that of Thucydides belongs to 
a more advanced state of culture. Quintilian says of 
the former, " hi Herodoto omnia leniter Jluunt ;'' of the 
latter, " Densus et hrevis et semper instans siM." 

Xenophon, in his Hellenica, continues Thucydides. 
He was a military leader, and familiar with the affairs 
of state, and though not so deep a thinker, was a more 
graceful and easy writer. Polybius, living in a much 
later period, is defective in style, but is a wise and 
sensible author. His object is not merely to show 
what has been, but to attempt the instruction of the 
future ; making his work, what he calls a demonstrative 
history, fitted for the use of statesmen. He is the last 
of the really good Greek historians. 

The Romans had the great Greek masters, in prose 
and poetry, all before them, and imitated them in every 
thing, but approached their models nearly, only in Elo- 
quence and History. Like the Greeks too, they had early 
poetical histories, historical legends, and songs. En- 
nius wrote a sort of Epic History of Rome. Csesar, one 
of the most distinguished of all great men, wrote ac- 



25 



counts of what he had done, or what related directly 
to himself. The clearness, purity, and precision of his 
style are as characteristic of him, as any of his great 
achievements. 

vSallust followed more closely the Greek models. 
Each of his two remaining histories is an Epic whole ; 
short, indeed, but complete ; fashioned with the great- 
est exactness ; and remarkable for a dignity and state- 
liness of style, wiiich Caesar did not seek, and which 
would not have been fitting for his personal memoirs. 

Livy had another purpose ; there is an Epic 
completeness in his great work, though it has come 
down to us in a mutilated state. " Majestas populi Ro- 
mani " was his subject, and he sacrifices much to it; 
even, not unfrequently, the rigor of truth. His style 
is rich and flowing. Quintilian speaks of " Livii lactea 
uhertas'' the creamy richness of Livy. His descriptions 
are excellent ; indeed, there is a nobleness and gran- 
deur about the whole work, well fitted to his magnifi- 
cent purpose in writing it. 

Tacitus comes later, when he could no longer feel so 
proud of his country as Livy had done. He had much 
of the spirit and the power of Thucydides. Both were 
great, upright men, dissatisfied with their times ; the 
one, because of the ascendancy of demagogues among 
the people, the other with the imperial vices and the 
growing demoralization of his age. Tacitus is, how- 
ever, free from passion, and is a wise, statesmanlike 
and profound writer, throughout. Of both his History 
and Annals considerable portions are lost. We cannot, 
therefore, tell how much of completeness and proportion 
there may have been in either. But the nature of the 
period he discusses in each, a period, as he says " opi- 



26 



mum casibus, atrox praeliis, discors seditionibus, ipsa 
etiam pace soBVum'^ not less than the severity of his 
own nature forbade poetical ornament. In character- 
drawing he is hardly excelled by any one. By a single 
dash of his pencil, he sometimes throws out a likeness, 
wiiich all feel and acknowledge ; and yet it has been 
thought, that some degree of falling off in the purity 
and elegance of the Latin language is discernible in his 
pages. 

Of the Roman historians my preference is strongly 
for Sallust. I admire his reach of thought, his clear- 
ness of style, as well as his accuracy of narration. He 
is sufficiently concise ; he is sententious, without being 
meagre or obscure, and his power of personal and indi- 
vidual description is remarkable. There are, indeed, 
in his style, some roughnesses belonging to the Roman 
tongue at an earlier age, but they seem to strengthen 
the structure of his sentences, without especially injur- 
ing their beauty. No character-drawing can well ex- 
ceed his delineation of Catiline, his account of Jugur- 
tha, or his parallel between Ceesar and Cato. I have 
thought, sometimes, that I saw resemblances between 
his terse and powerful periods, and the remarks and 
sayings of Dr. Johnson, as they appear, not in his 
stately performances, but in the record of his conversa- 
tions by Boswell. 

In turning to peruse once more the pages of Sallust, 
to refresh myself for the preparation of this address, I 
was struck by the coincidence of a transaction, narrated 
by him, with one which we have seen very recently 
in our own country. 

When Jugurtha had put to death Hiempsal and ex- 
pelled Adherbalfrom his rightful throne, the latter (who 



27 

was born in Numidia, and not in Hungary), came to 
Rome to invoke, what we should call, the intervention 
of the Roman people. His speech, delivered on that 
occasion, in the Senate, as Sallust has given it, is one 
of the most touching ever made by a man in misfortune, 
and suffering from injury, to those having the power of 
granting relief or redress. His supplication to the 
Senate is founded on the broad and general idea, that 
the Roman people were just themselves, and as they 
had the power, so it was their duty, to prevent or pun- 
ish high-handed injustice, threatened or inflicted by 
others. He thus speaks : 

" Sed, quoniam parum tuta per se ipsa pvobitas, neqiie milii in manu fuit 
Jugurtha qualis foret : ad vos confugi, Patres conscripti, quibus, quod miser- 
rimiim, cogor prius oneri, quam iisui esse. Ceteri reges, aut bello \acti in 
amicitiam a vobis recepti, aut in suis dubiis rebus societatem vestrara appe- 
tiverunt. Familia nostra cum populo Romano bello Carthaginiensi amicitiam 
instituit : quo tempore magis fides ejus, quam fortuna petenda erat. Quo- 
rum progeniem vos, Patres conscripti, nolite pati frustra a vobis auxilium 
petere. Si ad impetrandum nihil causre haberem, prseter miserandam for- 
tunam ; quod paulo ante rex, genere, fama atque copiis potens, nunc defor- 
matus a3rumnis, inops, alienas opes expecto : tamen erat majestaiis Romani 
2>opuli prohibere injuriam neque pati cujusquam rcgnum per scelus 



crescere. 



* * * 



" Quid agam ? quo potissimum infelix accedara ? Generis prtesidia om- 
nia extincta sunt : pater, uti necesse erat, naturse concessit ; fratri, quem mi- 
nime decuit, propinquus per scelus vitam eripuit ; affines, amicos, propin- 
quos ceteros, alium alia clades oppressit : capti ab Jugurtha, pars in crucem 
acti, pars bestiis objecti ; pauci, quibus relicta anima, clausi in tenebris, cum 
moerore et luctu, morte graviorem vitam exigunt. Si omnia, quie aut amisi, 
aut ex necessariis adversa facta sunt, incolumia manerent, tamen, si quid 
ex improvise accidisset, vos implorarem, Patres conscripti ; quibus, pro mag- 
nitudine imperii, jus et injurias omnes curse esse decet. Nunc vero exul 
patria, domo, solus et omnium honestarum rerum egens, quo accedam, aut 
quos appellem ? nationesne, an reges, qui omnes familiie nostrie ob vestram 
amicitiam infesti sunt ? an quoquam mihi adiro hcet, ubi non majorum 
meorum hostilia monuraenta plurima ? aut quisquam nostri misereri potest, 
qui aliquando vobis hostia fuit 2 * * * * 



" At ego infelix, in tanta mala prsecipitatus ex patrio regno, renim huma- 
narum spectaculum prsebeo : incertus quid agam, tuasne injurias persequar, 
ipse auxilii egens ; an regno consulam, cujus vitse necisque potestas ex opi- 
bus alienis pendet. Utinam emori fortunis meis honestus exitus esset, neu 
vivere contemptus viderer, si defessus malis injurije concessissem. Nunc ne- 
que vivere lubet, neque mori licet sine dedecore. Patres conscri2:)ti, per vos, 
per liberos atque parentes vestros, per majestatera populi Romani, subvenite 
misero mihi ; ite obviam injuria3 ; nolite pati regnum Numidise, per scelus 
et sanguinem familige nostrse tabescere." 

While I confess myself not competent to sit in judg- 
ment on the great masters of Roman story, still, it has 
always struck me that in the style of Livy, there is 
so much fulness, so much accumulation of circumstan- 
ces, as occasionally tends to turgidity. I speak this, 
however, with the greatest diffidence. Livy seems to 
me like the rivers under the influence of copious, spring 
floods, when not only is the main channel full, but all 
the tributary streams are also tending to overflow; 
while Sallust, I think, takes care only that there shall 
be one deep, clear, strong and rapid current, to convey 
him and his thoughts to their destined end. 

I do not mean to say, that the skilful use of circum- 
stance, either in the hand of a historian or a poet, is 
not a great power — I think it is. What we call graphic 
description, is but the presentation of the principal 
idea, with a discreet accompaniment of interesting 
concomitants. 

The introduction of a single auxiliary thought or 
expression sometimes gives a new glow to the histori- 
cal or poetical picture. Particularity, well set forth, 
enchains attention. In our language, no writer has un- 
derstood this better than Milton. His poetical images 
and descriptions are sure to omit nothing, which can 
make those images and those descriptions striking, 



29 



distinct and certain, while all else is industriously re- 
pelled. 

Witness the fall of Vulcan, which is stated with 
such beautiful detail, so much step by step, and termi- 
nated by such a phrase and comparison at the end, as 
greatly to enhance the idea, both of its length, and its 
rapidity. 

" Men call'd liim Mulciber ; nnd Low he fell 
" From Heaven, they fabled, thrown by angry Jove 
" Sheer o'ei- the crystal battlements ; from morn 
" To noon he fell, from noon to dewy eve, 
" A summer's day ; and with the setting sun 
" Dropt from the zenith like a faUing star, 
" On Lemnos the ^-Egean isle." 

His description of vocal music in the Allegro is an- 
other instance of the same kind : 

" And ever against eating cares, 

" Lap me in soft Lydian airs, 

" Married to immortal verse, 

" Such as the meeting soul may pierce 

" In notes, with many a winding bout 

" Of linked sweetness long drawn out, 

" With wanton heed, and giddy cunning, 

" The melting voice through mazes running, 

" Untwisting all the chains that tie 

" The hidden soul of harmony, 

" That Orpheus' self may heave his head 

" From golden slumber on a bed 

*' Of heap'd Elysian flowers, and hear 

" Such strains as would have won the ear 

" Of Pluto, to have quite set free 

" Ilis half-regain'd Eurydice." 

I hardly know anything, which surpasses these ex- 
quisite lines ; so poetical, and, at the same time, so 



30 

thoroughly and absohitely English, and so free from all 
foreign idiom. 

Several stanzas of Gray's "Elegy in a Country Church 
Yard," are also remarkable for the power and accuracy 
with which rural scenery is presented, by grouping 
together many interesting objects in one picture. 

Another poetical instance of the same beauty is the 
" Burial of Sir John Moore." 

There are remarkable instances of the same skill 
in writing in some of the English prose writers, and 
especially in the productions of Daniel De Foe. No 
boy doubts that everything told of Robinson Crusoe is 
exactly true, because all is so circumstantially told ; 
I believe I was about ten years of age, when I first 
read Robinson Crusoe, and I remember still the dis- 
tress and perspiration, which I was thrown into, by his 
dangerous condition in his boat. " There was a current 
on both sides, a strong eddy under the shore. The sea 
was making a great breach upon that point. It was not 
safe to keep the shore, for the breach, nor leave it for 
the stream. He could do nothing with his paddles, and 
there was not a breath of Avind. A great depth of wa- 
ter, running like the sluice of a mill, carried him farther 
and farther from the eddy, which was on the left hand, 
so that he could not keep his boat on the edge of it, 
and as the current on the north side, and the current 
on the south side would both join at a few leagues 
distant, he thought himself irrecoverably gone." And 
I thought so too. No man doubts, until he is informed 
of the contrary, that the historian of the plague of Lon- 
don, actually saw all that he described, although De 
Foe was not born till a subsequent year. 

It is a well known saying, that the lie with circum- 






stance is exceedingly calculated to deceive : and that 
is true, and it is equally true, not only that fictitious 
history gains credit and belief by the skilful use of 
circumstance, but that true History, also, may derive 
much additional interest from the same source. 

In general, however, historical facts are to be related 
with rather a close and exclusive regard to such, and 
such only as are important. 

The art of Historical composition owes its origin to 
the institutions of Political Freedom. Under the des- 
potism of the Ganges and the Indus, poetry flourished 
with oriental luxuriance, from the earliest times; but 
in the immense compass of that rich, primeval litera- 
ture, there is no History, in the high sense of that 
term. The banks of the Nile were crowded with his- 
torical monuments and memorials, stretching back into 
the remotest antiquity ; and recent researches have 
discovered historical records of the Pharaohs in the 
scrolls of papyrus, some of them as ancient as the books 
of Moses. But in all these, there is no history composed 
according to the principles of art. In Greece, the 
Epic Song, founded on traditionary legends, long pre- 
ceded historical composition. I remember when I 
thought it the greatest wonder in the world, that the 
poems of Homer should have been written at a period 
so remote, that the earliest Grecian History should have 
given no probable account of their author. I did not 
then know, or had not then considered, that poetical 
writings, hymns, songs, accounts of personal adven- 
tures like those of Hercules and Jason, were, in the 
nature of things, earlier than regular Historical nar- 
ratives. Herodotus informs us, that Homer lived four 
hundred years before his time. There is, neverthe- 



S2 



less, something very wonderful in the poems of the old 
Ionian. 

In general, it is true of the languages of nations, that 
in their earlier ages, they contain the substantial bone 
and sinew characteristic of their idiom, yet that they 
are rough, imperfect, and without polish. Thus Chaucer 
wrote English, but it is what we call old English, and, 
though always vigorous and often incomparably sweet, 
far remote from the smoothness and fluency belonging 
to the style of Pope and Addison. And Spenser wrote 
English, but, though rich, sonorous and gorgeous, it has 
not the precision and accuracy of those later writers. It 
would seem, that many books must be written and read, 
and a great many tongues and pens employed, before the 
language of a country reaches its highest polish and per- 
fection. Now, the wonder is, how a language should 
become so perfect, as was the Greek of Homer, at the 
time when that language could have been very little 
written. Doubtless, in succeeding ages, the compass 
of the Greek tongue was enlarged, as knowledge be- 
came more extended, and new things called for new 
words ; but, within the sphere of Grecian knowledge, 
as it existed in the time of Homer, it can scarce be 
questioned, that his style is quite as perfect and 
polished, as that of any of his successors, and perhaps 
more picturesque. The cause of this apparent anomaly 
is, that the language had not only been spoken for 
many centuries, by a people of great ingenuity and 
extraordinary good taste, but had been carefully culti- 
vated by the recitation of poetical compositions, on a 
great variety of religious and festive occasions. 

It was not until the legislation of Solon had laid the 
foundation of free political institutions, and these insti- 



33 

tutions had unfolded a free and powerful and active 
political life, in the Athenian Republic; until the dis- 
cussion of public affairs, in the Senate and the popular 
Assembly, had created deliberative eloquence, and 
the open administration of Justice in the Courts, and 
under the Laws estabhshed by Solon, had applied to 
the transactions between the citizens all the resour- 
ces of refined logic, and drawn into the sphere of civil 
rights and obligations the power of high forensic ora- 
tory : it was not until these results of the legislative 
wisdom of Solon had been attained, that the art of his- 
tory rose and flourished in Greece. With the decline 
of Grecian liberty began the decline in the art of His- 
torical Composition. Histories were written under the 
Grecian Kings of Egypt ; and a long line of writers 
flourished under the Byzantine Emperors ; but the 
high art of historical composition, as perfected in the 
master-works of Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon, 
had perished in the death of political freedom. 

The origin, progress, and decline of History, as an 
Art, were nearly the same in Rome. Sallust and Livy 
flourished at the close of the Republic and the com- 
mencement of the Empire. The great works of Taci- 
tus himself are thought by many to betray the begin- 
ning of decline in the Art, and later writers exhibit 
its fall. 

The art of History again revived with the rise of 
the Italian Republics ; and since the revival of litera- 
ture, at the close of the middle ages, it will probably 
be found that three things naturally rise into impor- 
tance together; that is to say. Civil Liberty, Elo- 
quence, and the art of Historical Writing. 

Other foundation is not to be laid for authentic his- 
3 



tory than well authenticated facts ; hut, on this founda- 
tion, structures may be raised of different characteris- 
tics, historical, biographical, and philosophical. One 
writer may confine himself to exact and minute narra- 
tion ; another, true to the general story, may embellish 
that story with more or less of external ornament, or 
of eloquence in description ; a third, with a deeper 
philosophical spirit, may look into the causes of events 
and transactions, trace them with more profound re- 
search to their sources in the elements of human na- 
ture, or consider and solve, with more or less success, 
the most important question, how far the character of 
individuals has produced public events, or how far on 
the other hand public events have produced and form- 
ed the character of individuals. 

Therefore one history of the same period, in human 
affairs, no more renders another history of the same 
period useless, or unadvisable, than the structure of 
one temple forbids the erection of another, or one sta- 
tue of Apollo, Hercules, or Pericles, should suppress all 
other attempts to produce statues of the same persons. 

But, gentlemen, I must not dwell upon these gene- 
ral topics. We are Americans. We have a country all 
our own ; we are all linked to its fates and its fortunes ; 
it is already not without renown ; it has been the thea- 
tre of some of the most important human transactions, 
and it may well become us, to reflect on the topics and 
the means furnished for historical composition in our 
own land. I have abstained, on this occasion. Gentle- 
men, from much comment on histories composed by 
European writers of modern times; and, for obvious 
.reasons, I abstain altogether from remarks upon the 
.writers of our own country. 



35 



Works have been written upon the History of the 
United States, other works upon the same subject are 
in progress, and, no doubt, new works are contemplat- 
ed, and will be accomplished. 

It need not be doubted, that what has been achieved 
by the great men who have preceded our generation, 
will be properly recorded by their successors. A 
country, in which highly interesting events occur, is 
not likely to be destitute of scholars and authors, fit to 
transmit those events to posterity. For the present, I 
content myself with a few general remarks on the sub- 
ject. 

In the History of the United States there are three 
epochs. The first extends from the origin and settle- 
ment of the Colonies, respectively, to the year 1774. 
During this, much the longest period, the history of the 
country is the history of separate communities and gov- 
ernments, with different laws, and institutions, though 
all were of a common origin ; not identical indeed, 
yet having a strong family resemblance, and all more 
or less reference to the constitution, and common law 
of the parent country. 

In all these Governments the principle of popular re- 
presentation more or less prevailed. It existed in the 
State Governments, in counties, in large districts, and 
in townships and parishes. And it is not irrelevant to 
remark, that, by the exercise of the rights enjoyed 
under these popular principles, the whole people came 
to be prepared, beyond the example of all others, for 
the observance of the same principles in the establish- 
ment of national institutions, and the administration of 
sovereign powers. 

The second period extends from 1774, through the 



m 



great event of the Declaration of Independence, in 
which the colonies were called States, and, through 
the existence of the Confederation, down to the period 
of the adoption of the present Constitution. The third 
emhraces the period from 1789 to the present time. 

To avoid dealing with events too recent, it might be 
well to consider the third era, or epoch, as terminating 
Avith the close of President Washington's administra- 
tion, and going hack into the second, so far as to trace 
the events and occurrences, which showed the necessi- 
ty of a general government, different from that framed 
by the articles of confederation, and which prepared 
the minds of the people for the adoption of the present 
Constitution. No doubt, the Assembly of the first 
Continental Congress may be regarded as the era at 
which the Union of these States commenced. This 
took place in Philadelphia, the city distinguished by 
the great civil events of our early history, on the 5th 
of September, 1774, on which day the first Continental 
Congress assembled. Delegates were present from 
New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Con- 
necticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Dela- 
ware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro- 
lina and Georgia. 

Let this day be ever remembered! It saw as- 
sembled from the several Colonies those great men, 
whose names have come down to us, and will descend 
to all posterity. Their proceedings are remarkable for 
simplicity, dignity, and unequalled ability. At that 
day, probably, there could have been convened on no 
part of tliis globe an equal number of men, possessing 
greater talents and ability, or animated by a higher 
and more patriotic motive. They were men, full of the 



37 



spirit of the occasion, imbued deeply with the general 
sentiment of the country, of large comprehension, of 
long foresight, and of few words. They made no 
speeches for ostentation, they sat with closed doors, 
and their great maxim was ''faire sans dire." It is true, 
they only wrote ; hut the issuing of such writings, on 
such authority, and at such a crisis, was action, high, 
decisive. National action. They knew the history of 
the past, they were alive to all the difficulties and all 
the duties of the present, and they acted from the first, 
as if the future were all open before them. Peyton 
Randolph was unanimously chosen President, and 
Charles Thomson was appointed Secretary. In such 
a constellation, it would be invidious to point out the 
bright particular stars. Let me only say, what none 
can consider injustice to others, that George Wash- 
ington was one of the number. 

The proceedings of the assembly were introduced 
by religious observances, and devout supplications to 
the Throne of Grace for the inspirations of wisdom and 
the spirit of good counsels. 

On the second day of the Session it was ordered, 
that a committee should be appointed, to state the 
rights of the Colonies, the instances in which those 
rights had been violated, and the means proper to be 
pursued for their restoration ; and another committee, 
to examine and report upon the several statutes of the 
English parliament, which had been passed aifecting 
the trade and manufactures of the Colonies. The 
members of these committees were chosen on the fol- 
lowing day. Immediately afterwards Congress took 
up, as the foundation of their proceedings, certain re- 
solutions adopted, just before the time of their assem- 



38 



bling, by delegates from towns in the county of Suffolk, 
and especially the town of Boston. 

Boston, the early victim of the infliction of wrong 
by the mother country, the early champion of Ameri- 
can liberty ; Boston, though, in this vast country, she 
may be now surpassed by other cities in numbers, 
in commerce and wealth, can never be surpassed in 
the renown of her revolutionary history. She will 
stand acknowledged, while the world doth stand, 
as the early promoter and champion of the rights 
of the colonies. The English crown frowned upon 
her w ith severity and indignation ; it only made her 
stand more erect, and put on a face of greater bold- 
ness and defiance. The parliament poured upon her 
all its indignation ; it only held her up with greater illu- 
mination, and drew towards her a more enthusiastic at- 
tachment and veneration from the country. Boston, as 
she was in heart, in principle and conduct in 1774, so 
may she remain, till her three hills shall sink into the 
sea and be no more remembered among men. 

Gentlemen, these early proceedings of the citizens 
of Boston, and other inhabitants of the county of Suf- 
folk, deserve to be written, where all posterity may 
read them. They were carried to the Representative 
of Royalty, by the first distinguished martyr in the 
cause of liberty, Joseph Warren. How fit, that he, who 
was not long afterwards to fall in the defence of this 
liberty, and to seal his love of country with his blood, 
full of its spirit and its principles, should be charged 
with its remonstrances to the throne of England ! 
No encomium, no eulogy upon the State of which I 
have the honor to be a citizen, can exceed that, which 
is expressed in the unanimous resolution of the first 



39 



American Congress, of the 8th of Octol3ei% 1774, in 
these words : 

*' Resolved, That this Congress approve the opposition of the Massa- 
chusetts Bay to the execution of the late acts of Parliament ; and if the 
same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case 
all America ought to sup[x>rt them in their opposition." 

Gentlemen, I will not believe, that the ancient com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts, can ever depart from her 
true character, or cease to deserve this immortal 
honor ; I think it impossible. But should she be left 
to such forgetfulness of herself, and all that belongs 
to her ; should she temporarily, or permanently, stray 
away from the paths of her ancient patriotism ; should 
she, which Heaven avert, be willing, to throw off her 
original, and all American, mantle, and to disrobe her- 
self, in the presence of the w orld, of all her nationality 
of character, there are others, who would eagerly seize 
that mantle, and who would show themselves capable 
of wearing it with grace, dignity, and power. I need 
not say here, w here those others are to be found. I am 
in the city, in which Washington first took upon him- 
self the administration of the Government, I am near 
the spot, on which all hearts and all hopes were con- 
centrated in 1789. I bring the whole scene, with all its 
deep interests, before me. I see the crowds, that fill 
and throng the streets, I see the ten thousand faces, 
anxious to look on him, to whose wisdom, prudence, 
and patriotism, the destinies of the country are now 
committed. I see the august form, I behold the serene 
face of Washington ; I observe his reverent manner, 
when he rises in the presence of countless multitudes, 
and, looking up with religious awe to Heaven, solemnly 



40 



swears before those multitudes, and before Him, that 
sitteth on the circle of those Heavens, that he will sup- 
port the Constitution of his country, so help him God ! 

And I can hear the shouts and acclamations, that rend 
the air, I see outpouring tears of joy and hope, I see 
men clasping each other's hands, and I hear them ex- 
claim : " we have at last a country ; we have a Union ; 
and in that Union is strength. We have a government, 
able to keep us together ; and we have a Chief Magis- 
trate, an object of confidence, attachment and love to 
us all." 

Citizens of New York, men of this generation, is 
there anything, which warms your hearts more than 
these recollections ? Or can you contemplate the un- 
paralleled growth of your city, in population and all 
human blessings, without feeling, that the spot is 
hallowed, and the hour consecrated, where and when 
your career of pro.sperity and happiness began ? 

But, Gentlemen, my heart would sink within me, 
and voice and speech would depart from me, if I w ere 
compelled to believe, that your fidelity to the Consti- 
tution of the country, signal and unquestioned as it is, 
could ever exceed that of the State, whose soil was 
moistened by the blood of the first heroes in the cause 
of liberty, and whose history has been characterized, 
from the beginning, by zealous and uniform support of 
the principles of Washington. 

This first Congress sat from the fifth day of Septem- 
ber, until the twenty-sixth of October, and it then 
dissolved. Its whole proceedings are embraced in 
forty-nine pages, but these few pages contain the sub- 
stance, and the original form and pressure of our 
American Liberty; before a government of checks and 



41 



balances and departments, with separate and well de- 
fined powers, was established. Its principal papers are : 
an address to the people of Great Britain, written by 
John Jay ; a memorial to the inhabitants of the British 
colonies, written by Richard Henry Lee ; a petition to 
the King, and an address to the inhabitants of Quebec, 
written by John Dickinson.* 

There is one resolution of the Old Congress, adopted 
on the fourteenth of March, 1776, which has never 
received so much attention, as it deserves. 

It is in these words : 

" Resolved, That it be recommended to the several Assemblies, Conven- 
tions, Councils or Committees of Safety, immediately to cause all persons 
to be disarmed within their respective Colonies, who are notoriously 
disaffected to the cause of America, or who have not associated, and refuse to 
associate to defend by arms the United Colonies against the hostile attempts 
of the British Fleets and Ai-mies." 
Extract from the minutes. 

CHAELES THOMSON, 

Secretary. 

Several of the Governors of the States, Conventions, 



* In a copy of the printed journal of the proceedings of the Provincial Congress, of 
1774, which belonged to Coesar Rodney, and which contains interlineations, probably in 
his handwriting, the petition to the King is stated to have been written by John Adams, 
and corrected by John Dickinson. Its authorship is claimed also for Richard Henry Lee, 
by his biographer, probably on the ground, that he was the chairman of the committee, 
and may have prepared the original draft of the petition which was re-committed, Mr. 
Dickinson being at the same time added to the committee ; and it is included in the edi- 
tion of Mr. Dickinson's writings, published at Wilmington, during his lifetime, and su- 
perintended by himself. Mr. Rodney's copy of the journal ascribes the memorial to the 
inhabitants of the British colonies, to William Livingston. But there is the best proof 
that it was written by Richard Henry Lee. This copy of the journal is in the possession 
of Col. Peter Force, of Washington, whose library of American History is probably not 
surpassed in value or extent by any other collection of books and manuscripts on this sub- 
ject, and whose indefatigable industry and conscientious research, in collecting the materi- 
als for an American history, to which he has devoted his life, are worthy of great conside» 
ration. 



Councils or Committees of Safety, took immediate 
measures for carrying this resolution into effect. The 
proceeding's, in consequence of it, have been preserved, 
however, only in a few States. The fullest returns, 
which can he found, are believed to be from New 
Hampshire and New York. The form adopted was a 
recital of the resolution of Congress, and then the 
promise, or pledge, in the following words : — 

" In consequence of tlie above resolution of the Continental Congress, 
and to show our determination in joining our American brethren in de- 
fending the lives, liberties and properties of the inhabitants of the United 
Colonies : We, the subscribers, do hereby solemnly engage and promise, 
that we will, to the utmost of our power, at the risk of our lives and for- 
tunes, with arms, oppose the hostile proceedings of the British fleets and 
armies against the United American Colonies." 

In the mountainous State of New Hampshire, and 
among the highest of its mountains, then containing 
only a few scattered settlements, was the township of 
Salisbury. The Merrimac river, forming its eastern 
boundary, now so pleasant in scenery, and with so 
much richness and industry on its banks, was then a 
roaring and foaming stream, seeking its way amidst 
immense forests on either side, from the White Moun- 
tains to the sea. The settlers in this township were 
collected, and the promise or pledge proposed by the 
Continental Congress, of life and fortune, presented to 
them. " All," as the record says, " freely signed ex- 
cept two." 

In looking to this record, thus connected with the 
men of my own birth-place, I confess I was grati- 
fied to find who were the signers, and who were 
the dissentients. Among the former was He, from 
whom I am immediately descended, with all his 



43 



brothers, and his whole kith and kin. This is sufficient 
emblazonry for my arms, enough of heraldry for me.* 
Are there young men before me, who wish to learn 
and to imitate the spirit of their ancestors, who wish to 
live and breathe in that spirit, who desire that every 
pulsation of their hearts, and every aspiration of their 
ambition shall be American and nothing but American ? 
Let them master the contents of the immortal papers 



* The signers in Salisbury, 
Ebenezer Johqson, 
Samuel Scribner, 
John Collins, 
Reuben Greele, 
William Newton, 
Benjamin Bean, 
Job Heath, 
Phineas Bean, 
John Jameson, 
John Sanborn, 
Jacob True, 
John Gale, 
Moses Elkins, 
Rev. Jonathan Searle, 
Ebenezer Webster, 
John Fifield, 
William Searle, 
Abel Tandey, 
Jeremiah Webster, 
Edward Fifield, 
Moses Garland, 

Edward Heath, 

Ezra Tucker, 

Eben Tucker, 

Nathaniel Meloon, 

Hezekiah Foster, 

Nat. Meloon, Jr., 

Daniel Warren, 



New Hampshire, were 

Iddo Scribner, 

John Bean, 

Obadiah P. Fifield, 

Benjamin Scribner, 

Edward Scribner, 

John Scribner, 

Jacob Bohonon, 

John Bowen, 

Benjamin Sanborn, 

Joseph Basford, 

Daniel Sewel, 

John Webster, 

Israel Webster, 

Robert Barber, 

Nathaniel Marston, 
Robert Smith, 
Andrew Pettingill, 
William Calef, 
Leonard Judkins, 

Jonathan Fifield, 
Edward Eastman, 
Shubael Greele, 
Benjamin Huntoon, 
Jonathan Cram, 
David Pettingill, 
Joseph Bartlett, 
John Rowe, 
Cutting Stevens. 



the following : — 

William Webster, 
Jacob Garland, 
William Eastman. 
Joseph Marston, 
Moses Sawyer, 
John Challis, 
Benjamin Greele, 
John Fellows, 
Ephraim Colby, 
John Webster, Jr., 
Andrew Robinson, Jr., 
Ananiah Bohonon, 
Andrew Bohonon, 
Daniel Huntoon, 
Moses Selly, 
Gideon Dow, 
Jacob Cochran, 
Nathan Colby, 
Joseph French, 
Stephen Call, 
Matthew Pettingill, 
Ebenezer Clifford, 
Reuben Hoit, 
Joseph Fifield, 
Abel Elkins, 
Abraham Fifield, 
Richard Piermont, 



This may certify to the General Assembly or Committee of Safety, of the Colony of N'ew 
Eampshlre, that we, the subscribers, have oflcred the within Declaration to the inhabitants 
of the town of Salisbury, and they sign freely, Mr. Sinkler Bean, and Joseph Bean, Esq., 

excepted. 

Ebenezer Webster, ) Selectmen 
Jonathan Fifield, j of Salisbury. 

SaUsbury, September 12th, 1776. 



m 



of the first Congress, and fully imbue themselves with 
their sentiments. 

The great Lord Chatham spoke of this assembly in 
terms, which have caused my heart to thrill, and my 
eyes to be moistened, whenever I recollect them, from 
my first reading of them, to this present hour : 

" When your lordships look at the papers, transmitted us from America, 
when you consider their decency, firmness and wisdom, you cannot but 
respect their cause, and wish to make it your own. For myself, I must 
declare and avow, that in all my reading and observation, and it has been 
my favorite study, I have read Thucydides, and have studied and ad- 
mired the master-states of the world, that for solidity of reasoning, force of 
sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under such a complication of difficult 
circumstances, no nation or body of men can stand in preference to the 
general Congress at Philadelphia. I trust it is obvious to your lordships, 
that all attempts to impose servitude upon such men, to establish despotism 
over such a mighty continental nation, must be vain, must be fatal. We 
shall he forced ultimately to retract ; let us retract while we can, not when 
we must." 

This first Congress, for the ability which it manifest- 
ed, the principles which it proclaimed, and the charac- 
ters of those who composed it, makes an illustrious 
chapter in our American History. Its members should 
be regarded not only individually, but as in a group ; 
they should be viewed as living pictures, exhibiting 
young America as it then was, and when the seeds of 
its pubhc destiny were beginning to start into life, well 
described by our early motto, as being full of energy 
and prospered by heaven: 

" Non sine Dis, animosus infans." 

Some of the members of this Congress have lived 
to my time, and I have had the honor of seeing and 
knowing them, and there are those in this assembly, 
doubtless, who have beheld the stately form of Wash- 



45 



iiigton, and looked upon the mild and intelligent face, 
and heard the voice, of John Jay. 

For myself, I love to travel back in imagination, to 
place myself in the midst of this assembly, this Union 
of greatness and patriotism, and to contemplate, as if 
I had witnessed, its profound deliberations, and its 
masterly exhibitions, both of the rights and of the 
wrongs of the country. 

I may not dwell longer on this animating and en- 
chanting picture. Another grand event succeeds it, 
and that is, the Convention which framed the Consti- 
tution, the spirited debates in the States, by the ablest 
men of those States, upon its adoption, and, finally, the 
first Congress, filled by the gray haired men of the revo- 
lution, and younger and vigorous patriots, and lovers of 
liberty^ and Washington himself in the principal chair 
of State, surrounded by his Heads of Department, se- 
lected from thSse, who enjoyed the greatest portion of 
his own regard, and stood highest in the esteem of their 
country. 

Neither Thucydides nor Xenophon, neither Sallust 
nor Livy presents any picture of an assembly of public 
men, or any scene of History, which, in its proper 
grandeur, or its large and lasting influence upon the 
happiness of mankind, equals this. 

Its importance, indeed, did not, at the moment, strike 
the minds of ordinary men. But Burke saw it with 
an intuition, clear as the light of heaven. Charles Fox 
saw it ; and sagacious and deep thinking minds over all 
Europe perceived it. 

England, England, how would thy destinies have 
been altered, if the advice of Chatham, Burke and Fox 
had been followed ! 



^ 



Shall I say, altered for the better ? certainly not. 
England is stronger and richer, at this moment, than 
if she had listened to the unheeded words of her great 
statesmen. Neither nations nor individuals always 
foresee that, which their own interest and happiness 
require. 

Our greatest blessings often arise from the disap- 
pointment of our most anxious hopes, and our most fer- 
vent wishes : 

" Let us know, 



Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well, 

"When our deep plots do fail ; and that should teach us, 

There's a divinity that shapes our ends. 

Rough hew them how we will." 

Instead of subject colonies, England now beholds on 
these shores, a mighty rival, rich, powei'ful, intelligent 
like herself And may these countries be forever 
friendly rivals. May their power and greatness, sustain- 
ing themselves, be always directed to the promotion of 
the peace, the prosperity, the enlightenment and the 
liberty of mankind ; and if it be their united destiny, in 
the course of human events, that they be called upon, 
in the cause of humanity, and in the cause of freedom, 
to stand against a world in arms, they are of a race, 
and of a blood, to meet that crisis, without shrinking 
from danger, and without quailing in the presence of 
earthly power. 

Gentlemen, I must bring these desultory remarks to 
a close. I terminate them, where perhaps I ought to 
have begun — namely, with a few Avords on the present 
state and condition of our country, and the prospects, 
which are before her. 



47 



Unborn ages and visions of glory crowd upon my 
soul, the realization of all which, however, is in the 
hands and good pleasure of Almighty God, but, under 
his divine blessing, it will be dependent on the cha- 
racter and the virtues of ourselves, and of our pos- 
terity. 

If classical history has been found to be, is now, and 
shall continue to be, the concomitant of free institu- 
tions, and of popular eloquence, what a field is opening 
to us for another Herodotus, another Thucydides, and 
another Livy ! And let me say. Gentlemen, that if we, 
and our posterity, shall be true to the Christian reli- 
gion, if we and they shall live always in the fear of 
God, and shall respect his commandments, if we, and 
they, shall maintain just, moral sentiments, and such 
conscientious convictions of duty as shall control the 
heart and life, we may have the highest hopes of the 
future fortunes of our country ; and if we maintain 
those institutions of government and that political union, 
exceeding all praise as much, as it exceeds all former 
examples of political associations, we may be sure of 
one thing, that, while our country furnishes materials 
for a thousand masters of the Historic Art, it will afford 
no topic for a Gibbon. It will have no Decline and 
Fall. It will go on prospering and to prosper. But, if 
we and our posterity reject religious instruction and 
authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with 
the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the 
political constitution, which holds us together, no man 
can tell, how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm 
us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity. 
Should that castastrophe happen, let it have no history ! 
Let the horrible narrative never be written! Let its 



fate be like that of the lost books of Livy, which no 
human eye shall ever read, or the missing Pleiad, of 
which no man can ever know more, than that it is lost, 
and lost forever ! 

But, Gentlemen, I will not take my leave of you in a 
tone of despondency. We may trust, that Heaven will 
not forsake us, nor permit us to forsake ourselves. 
We must strengthen ourselves, and gird up our loins 
with new resolution ; we must counsel each other ; 
and, determined to sustain each other in the support of 
the Constitution, prepare to meet manfully, and united, 
whatever of difficulty, or of danger, whatever of effort, 
or of sacrifice, the Providence of God may call upon us 
to meet. Are we of this generation so derelict, have 
we so little of the blood of our revolutionary fathers 
coursing through our veins, that we cannot preserve, 
what they achieved ? The world will cry out " shame" 
upon us, if we show ourselves unworthy, to be the 
descendants of those great and illustrious men, who 
fought for their liberty, and secured it to their posteri- 
ty, by the Constitution of the United States. 

Gentlemen, exigencies arise in the history of 
nations, when competition and rivalry, disputes and 
contentions are powerful. Exigencies arise, in which 
good men of all parties, and all shades of political sen- 
timent, are required to re-consider their opinions and 
differences, to re-adjust their positions, and to bring 
themselves together, if they can, in the spirit of har- 
mony. Such a state of things, in my judgment, has 
happened in our day. An exigency has arisen, the 
duties and the dangers ol which, should sink deep 
within all our hearts. We have a great and wise 



49 



Constitution. We have grown, flourished, and pros- 
pered under it, with a degree of rapidity, unequalled 
in the history of the world. Founded on the basis 
of equal civil rights, its provisions secure perfect 
equality and freedom ; those who live under it are 
equal, and enjoy the same privileges. It is to be pre- 
sumed, that all wise and good men of the nation have 
the same end in view, though they may take different 
means to obtain that great end, the preservation and 
protection of the Constitution and government. If, 
then, they have one and the same object, they must 
unite in the means, and be willing each to surrender 
something to the opinions of others, to secure the har- 
mony of the whole. Unity of purpose should produce 
harmony of action. This general object, then, being 
the preservation of the Constitution, the only efficient 
means to accomplish this end, is the imion of all its 
friends. The Constitution has enemies, secret and 
professed; but they cannot disguise the fact, that it 
secures us many benefits. These enemies are unlike 
in character, but they all act for the same purpose. 
Some of them are enthusiasts, self-sufiicient and head- 
strong. They fancy, that they can strike out for them- 
selves a better path, than that laid down for them ; as 
the son of Apollo thought he could find a better course 
across the Heavens for the sun. 

" Thus Phaeton once, amidst the Ethereal plains 
Leaped on his father's car, and seized the reins, 
Far from his course impelled the glowing sun, 
Till nature's laws to wild disorder run." 

Heat, in the intellectual constitution of these enthu- 
siasts, is distributed just exactly as it should not be ; 
4 



they have hot heads and cold hearts. They are rash, 
reckless, and fierce for change, and with no affection 
for the existing institutions of their country. 

Other enemies there are, more cool, and with more 
calculation. These have a deeper and more fixed and 
dangerous purpose ; they formerly spoke of a forcible 
resistance to the provisions of the Constitution ; they 
now speak of secession. Let me say, Gentlemen, that 
secession from us is accession elsewhere. He, who re- 
nounces the protection of the " stars and stripes," will 
assuredly shelter himself under another flag; that will 
happen from inevitable necessity. 

These malcontents find it not difficult to inflame 
men's passions ; they attribute all the misfortunes of 
individual men, of different States, sections and com- 
munities, all want of prosperity — to the Union. There 
is a strange co-operation of what are called antagonistic 
opinions. Extremes meet and act together. 

There are those in the country, who profess, in their 
own words, even to hate the Constitution, because it 
tolerates, in the Southern States, the institutions exist- 
ing therein; and there are others, who profess to hate 
it, and do hate it, because it does not better sustain 
these institutions. These opposite classes meet, and 
shake hands together and say, " Let us see what we 
can do, to accomplish our common end. Give us disso- 
lution, revolution, secession, anarchy, and then let us 
have a general scramble for our separate objects." 
Now, the friends of the Constitution must rally and 
unite. They must forget the things which are behind, 
and act, with immovable firmness, like a band of 
brothers, with moderation and conciliation ; fin-getting 
past disagreements, and looking only to the great ob- 



51 



ject set before them, the preservation of the Constitu- 
tion, bequeathed to them by their ancestors. They 
must gird up their loins for the work. It is a duty 
which they owe to these ancestors, and to the genera- 
tions which are to succeed them. 

Gentlemen, I give my confidence, my countenance, 
my heart and hand, my entire co-operation to all good 
men, without reference to the past, or pledge for the 
future, who are willing to stand by the Constitution. 

I will quarrel with no man about past differences, 
I will reproach no one, but only say, that we stand to- 
gether here in a most interesting period of our history, 
with the same general love of country, the same vene- 
ration for ancestry, and the same regard for posterity : 
and let us act in that spirit of union, which actuated 
our ancestors, when they framed the institutions which 
it is ours to preserve. But I will not carry my toleration 
so far, as to justify, in the slightest degree, any defec- 
tion from that great and absolutely essential point, the 
preservation of the Union ; and, I think, every man 
should make his sentiments known on this point. For 
myself I have no hesitation, and cannot act with 
those who iiave. Other questions, questions of policy, 
are subordinate. This is paramount. Every man, 
who is for the Union, should come out boldly and say 
so, without condition or hypothesis, without ifs, and 
ands, and huts. What Cicero says on another occasion, is 
fully applicable to this : " dcnique iyiscriptum sit, patrcs 
coTiscripti, in fronte uniuscuj usque civis, quod de rejnihlica 
sentiat." Let every man bear inscribed on his fore- 
head, what are his sentiments concerning the republic. 
There are persons weak enough, foolish enough, to 
think and to say, that if the Constitution, which holds 



these States together, should be broken up, there 
would be found some other and some better chain of 
connection. This is rash ! This is rash ! I no more 
believe it possible, that, if this Union be dissolved, 
held together as it now is by the Constitution, es- 
pecially as I look on these thirty-one States, with 
their various institutions, spreading over so vast a 
country, with such varieties of climate : — I say, I no 
more believe it possible, that this Union, should it 
once be dissolved, could ever again be re-formed, 
and all the States re-associated, than I believe it pos- 
sible, that, if, by the fiat of Almighty power, the 
law of gravitation should be abolished, and the orbs, 
which compose the Universe, should rush into illimita- 
ble space, jostling against each other, they could be 
brought back, and I'e-adjusted into harmony by any 
new principle of attraction, I hardly know, whether 
the manner of our political death would be an aggra- 
vation, or an alleviation of our fate. We shall die no 
lingering death. We shall fall victims to neither 
war, pestilence, nor famine. An earthquake would 
shake the foundations of the globe, pull down the pil- 
lars of heaven, and bury us at once in endless dark- 
ness. Such may be the fate of this country and its 
institutions. May I never live, to see that day ! May 
I not survive to hear any apocalyptic angel, crying 
through the heavens, with such a voice as announced 

the fall of Babylon, "EneaeVyentaev/'u^neQixri tj iifydXtjyXalfy- 
£<fro natoiy.tjTtjQiov duin6ro3P xal q)vXaxt] navzog nvivfiajog astaOaQTOV, 
Gentlemen, inspiring auspices, this day, surround 
us and cheer us. It is the anniversary of the birth of 
Washington. We should know this, even if we had 
lost our calendars, for we should be reminded of it by 



53 

the shouts of joy and gladness. The whole atmosphere 
is redolent of his name ; hills and forests, rocks and 
rivers, echo and re-echo his praises. All the good, 
whether learned or unlearned, high or low, rich or 
poor, feel, this day, that there is one treasure common 
to them all, and that is the fame and character of 
Washington. Tliey recount his deeds, ponder over 
his principles and teachings, and resolve, to be more 
and more guided by them in the future. To the 
old and the young, to all born in the land, and to all, 
whose love of liberty has brought them from foreign 
shores, to make this the home of their adoption, the 
name of Washington is this day an exhilarating theme. 
Americans by birth are proud of his character, and 
exiles from foreign shores are eager, to participate in 
admiration of him; and it is true that he is, this day, 
here, everywhere, all the world over, more an object 
of love and regard, than on any day since his birth. 

Gentlemen, on Washington's principles, andunder 
the guidance of his example, will v\e and our children 
uphold the Constitution. Under his military leadership, 
our fathers conquered; and under the outspread ban- 
ner of his political and constitutional principles, will 
we also conquer. To that standard, we shall adhere, 
and uphold it, through evil report and through good 
report. We will meet danger, we will meet death, if 
they come, in its protection ; and we will struggle on, 
in daylight and in darkness, aye, in the thickest dark- 
ness, with all the storms which it may bring with it, 
till, 

" Danger's troubled night is o'er, 
And the star of Peace return." 



54 



Mr. Webster having concluded the reading of the 
Address, Chief Justice Jones rose, and addressed the 
chair as follows : 

Sir, — I ask to offer a resolution, tendering to our distinguished guest our 
acknowledgements for his able, eloquent and most interesting address to 
the Historical Society at the anniversary meeting of the institution. 

'■'■Resolved^ That the thanks of the Society be presented to the Hon. 
Daniel Webstek for the very able address delivered by him this evening, 
and that a copy be requested for the use of the Society." 

In presenting this resolution, I take occasion, Mr. President and fellow 
members of the Society, with the concurrence, I feel assured, of you all, to 
express the high gratification which that masterly address has afforded us ; 
and our deep sense of the obligation we are under to the gifted orator for his 
compliance with our request at so much inconvenience to himself; and for 
his felicitous fulfilment of his engagement in a manner so worthy of him- 
self, and so complimentary and grateful to us. 

The historic page, in its faithful record of former times and past events, 
embodying the experience of Nations and States and distinguished person- 
ages, in all ages and all countries, exhibits an index and a beacon of inesti- 
mable value to the hving races of man, pointing with unerring truth and 
certainty, to future events as indicated by the signs of the times seen 
in the passing occurrences of the day ; to that monitor we may at all times, 
if well versed in the lesson it teaches, and only observant of their bearings 
upon the living scenes around us, confidently appeal for the direction of our 
course, and in its counsels safely confide. Its lessons should be familiar to 
all, and neglected or unheeded by none. With these views of the impor- 
tance of historical pursuits, and for the furtherance of them in ollr own coun- 
try, this Institution was established by its founders, and while they and 
their dissociates had for their grand object the collection of materials for the 
annals of the confederated Kepublic, to which we belong, their more imme- 
diate purpose has been to discover, collect and preserve the materials and 
elements for a full and complete history of their own State ; for the accom- 
plishment of that purpose, it has been the aim and the study of the Society 
to trace and explore the origin, character, customs, languages and traditions 
of the tribes of aboriginal inhabitants who occui:)ied these extensive regions 
when first discovered by European adventurers ; the tribes or people of 
higher antiquity who preceded them in that occupancy ; and the advent 



and progress of those early settlere who came from the father-hind to these 
shores, then a -wilderness where the wild beasts of the forest and the \u\- 
tutored red man were wont to roam, now the home of a race whose indus- 
try and peaceful arts have made it indeed to blossom as the rose. These 
races, and more especially the red man of the forest, peculiar to this West- 
ern World, and of such marked variances from other races in personal linea- 
ments, and in pursuits and habits, and withal so inveterately averse to 
change, early invited, and have constantly commanded the attentive inter- 
est and research of the Historical Society. And as connected with these re- 
searches, the documentaiy and monumental remembrances, and the relics 
and antiquities found in the various sections of our State and country, cal- 
culated to throw light upon the obscurity of former times, have been care- 
fully and industriously investigated, and full and accurate accounts and des- 
criptions of them, and sometimes the rehcs themselves, added to the rich 
and valuable collection of the Society. 

The Institution assiduously engaged iu these and other similar pursuits, 
keeping its leading objects and purposes constantly in view, and its members 
actively uniting in its operations, has steadily advanced in its course, over- 
coming all the difficulties which beset it in its earlier days, and in less than 
half a century has grown up from a private association of a few literary 
friends, and with narrow means, into an incorporated Society, widely extended 
iu its operations and numbers, and it has now taken and maintains a proud 
rank among the literary institutions of the country. In every stage of its 
progress, the countenance, aid, and co-operation of literary and liberal men, 
in our own and our sister States, and in foreign countries, have contributed 
largely to its success. Meanwhile, the interesting and instructive addresses 
of eminent men at our anniversary meetings have conduced powerfully to 
encourage and animate us in our pursuits, to nerve our energies, and to im- 
pel us to a continued onward course. And, Sir, I may with truthfulness 
and pride, claim for this occasion, that no voice of greater charm or more 
effective influence and deep abiding interest for us and our cause, has ever 
met our ears than that which we have this day heard within these walls. 
No man better knows the value of history, or can more fully appreciate its 
benefits, than the eminent Statesman who has on this occasion unfolded to 
us so much of its merits and so many of ite beauties. The master mind 
at the helm of the ship of state, who is to navigate her in her course on 
the ocean water of the great political community of nations, wisely takes 
the lights of history for his guide. In all the emei-gencies that may arises 
with that light for his government and guide, he steadily pursues his own 
well considered course, avoiding as well the conflicts and collisions, as the 
entangling alliances of other states, observing good faith and cultivating 



66 



amicable relations with all, and submitting to wrong from none, he keeps 
his country true to her interest and her honor, and places her in the proud 
attitude of a great and just power commanding and possessing the respect and 
the confidence of the whole family of nations, I am obliged, Mr. President, 
from obviously controlling considerations, to refrain from any particular no- 
tices of the admirable address to which we have just listened with so much 
delight. 1 should be carried too far and detain you too long, were I to at- 
tempt even a glance at the great, varied and interesting topics it discusses, 
or the reach of thought and pre eminent a^^ility, and wide scope of erudi- 
tion so conspicuous in the view it takes of them. That address will, I trust, 
soon be before you, and it will sufficiently commend itself to the attentive 
perusal of every member of the Society. Suffice it on the present occasion 
to say of it, that if a question or a doubt could have before existed, in the 
minds of any who heard it, on the subject, the lucid exposition and forcible 
reasonings addressed by it to the understanding, must have dispelled all their 
doubts, and produced entire conviction of the value and importance of the 
study and knowledge of the annals and the science of history to all who 
are to take a part in public affitirs of the country, or who feel an interest in 
the success of the great experiment now making by these United States of 
the great republican system of self-government. 

Charles O'Conor, Esq., then rose and addressed 
the chair as follows : 

I second the motion of Chief Justice Jones. I might here stop and 
consider my whole duty performed, since I can neither enforce the authority 
of the venerable mover, nor add to what he has so well said. But I can- 
not let pass the opportunity of testifying my individual respect for the 
eminent orator of the evening. 

He has truly said, that the name of Washington, and this day, as the 
anniversary of his birth, are throughout the world objects of the highest re- 
gard. Why is this so ? It is because the republic which was established 
by the martial achievements of Washington and of his cotemporaries, oc- 
cupies, at this time, the most interesting point amongst the nations of the 
earth. Other states have had their allotted periods of pre-eminence and 
have passed or are passing into secondary positions. But our country, in 
the full vigor of youth, with her unchanged and I trust, unchangeable Con- 
stitution and institutions, is marching forward under prudent counsels to 
the accomplishment of her destiny. She will become at no distant day, 
and we may confidently hope will remain to the remotest ages, the greatest 



57 



empire the world has ever witnessed. Greatest, and most challenging 
admiration not only in wealth, population, extent of territory and all that 
constitutes material power, but in much higher elements. A State sur- 
passing all others in strength, yet invariably observing rectitude, enforcing 
for itself no more than simple justice, and securing for all who dwell within 
its shadow, or feel its influence, the sweets of liberty. Well may the past 
history, the present aspect and future prospects of such a State, attract the 
attention, and enhst the interest of mankind. Nor can those in civilized regions 
the most remote and secluded, who revere the memory of Washington and 
look with hope to America, be unmindful of the living Americans who best 
illustrate his principles, and stand the sustaining pillars of his constitution. 
We have heard from one of these an address which will go forth reflecting 
honor upon hims(df and his country to admiring nations. I advocate the 
proposal to place it in the archives of the Historical Society. It will testify 
to the friends of well regulated constitutional liberty throughout the world, 
that we concur in their well known admiration of its author — our own 
most distinguished citizen. It will be a just expression of our gratitude, as 
citizens of New York, for the felicitous representation of those points in 
history which confer most distinction upon our noble and patriotic City. 
In future times, when the historian or the orator shall desire to present for 
the imitation of his countrymen an illustrious American, here in this au- 
thentic record will be found a faithful portrait. Here will be found em- 
balmed the mighty intellect which in so many departments of human 
knowledge — in so many elements of mental greatness — surpassed its gene- 
ration. Learning which could grasp the history and the literature of every 
age, a herculean industry which could accumulate, and from day to day 
diligently employ all the minute and varied knowledge required for the 
most engrossing of professional pursuits, sustain the character of an eminent 
statesman and politician, discharge the duties of a first minister of State, 
and yet devote itself to the preparation of a paper so fraught with profitable 
learning and research as the address just delivered. That address has 
delighted us, and remains to instruct the present and future times. Let 
it become a record ; it will perpetuate the knowledge of what Americans 
were in the first ages of the republic — under the first influence of the Con- 
stitution. It will stand an enduring monument of the power and greatness 
of Daniel Webster. 

The resolution offered by Chief Justice Jones, was 
thereupon unanimously adopted, and the Society ad- 
journed. 



E R H A T A. 



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